Numbers of Iraqi Christian Emigrants on the Rise

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Calling Christians to Remain

The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako is calling for Christians to remain in Iraq as daily attacks and bombings are causing Christians to emigrate at an increasing rate.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that the “tenuous optimism after a brief improvement in security starting in 2008 has been dashed by a surge in bloodshed this year.”

The AFP continued: “Christians in Iraq are rarely explicitly targeted -- as they were during the height of the country's sectarian bloodletting in 2006-2007 -- but the daily attacks and bombings have made life unbearable”.

Patriarch Sako said some 61 churches have been attacked in the decade since the US-led invasion, with more than 1,000 Christians killed in violence, albeit not all in targeted attacks.